Recovering Lost Muscle Strength

What are the most common causes of decreased muscle strength?

• Age: Aging naturally brings a decline in muscle strength. Muscle tissues lose mass and power over time, leading to reduced physical performance.
• Illnesses and injuries: Certain illnesses, such as arthritis, or injuries—especially those that cause long-term limitations in movement—can also contribute to reduced muscle strength. This is because the body breaks down parts of the muscle when they are not used.
• Inactivity: A lack of an active lifestyle, especially prolonged periods of inactivity, can significantly reduce muscle strength.
• Nutritional deficiencies: A lack of nutrients needed for building muscle, such as proteins and certain vitamins, can also weaken muscles.

Ways to regain muscle strength

• Regular exercise: The best way to increase and maintain muscle strength is regular exercise, especially resistance-based workouts such as weight training. By regular exercise I do not mean Olympic-level training! The point is to engage in some form of physical activity on at least 3–4 days a week, each session lasting a minimum of 45–60 minutes. Make sure you do not always do the same thing: vary activities across days. For example, walk one day, do calisthenics or yoga another day, and play tennis or swim on another.
• Nutrition: Proper nutrition is important because the body needs proteins to build muscle. But nutrition alone is not enough: building muscle is triggered by stressing the muscles. Eating a lot of protein without exercising will not translate into muscle gain.
  It is also wrong to think you must eat meat to get protein! Plant proteins are perfectly suitable. For example, spinach, beans, lentils, peas, and squash are excellent protein sources.
• Rest and recovery: It is important to know that muscles are built not during the workout but when you rest and sleep. Therefore, recovery after training and sufficient sleep are necessary for muscles to repair and strengthen.
• Physiotherapy: In cases of injury or illness, physiotherapy methods (softlaser, magnet therapy, ultrasound, microcurrent, etc.) can help speed recovery and thus restore muscle strength.
• EMS (electrical muscle stimulation) is a modern technique that uses electrical impulses to promote muscle contractions and thereby significantly improve muscle condition. This can be especially useful for people with limited mobility due to their condition.

How does EMS work?

The device sends mild electrical impulses to the muscles, causing them to contract. For the muscle it does not matter whether the contraction is caused by the device's impulse or by a voluntary movement signal from the brain.

Benefits: EMS helps accelerate the recovery of muscle strength, improves blood circulation, and thereby aids in preventing muscle atrophy and regaining lost muscle strength.
Naturally, increases in muscle mass and strength do not come from the electrical impulse itself but from the intense muscle contractions the device provokes. It is similar to exercise. There is no effect after a single day; results are achieved by applying it daily over weeks.

Using EMS

Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) and traditional exercise affect muscles differently, which is an important consideration when planning training.

Traditional exercise—such as weightlifting or running—activates various muscle fibers at once, moving and developing entire muscle groups.

Most EMS devices designed for home use, by contrast, typically treat only one—at most two—muscle groups at a time.

The effect on the muscle depends on the device's program settings. There are three types of muscle fibers in the muscle, which operate at different frequencies. Therefore the stimulator acts according to its set frequency. Low frequencies improve “basic endurance.” This is needed for everyday life, knee and spine stability, and to be symptom-free. Medium frequencies affect another fiber type, so they can improve muscle mass though not necessarily baseline strength. High frequencies target type IIb muscle fibers.

However, if someone uses only high-frequency programs, stimulation treatments will not increase their basic strength and thus will not improve their overall condition.
For this reason it is very important to ask for competent advice before using electrical muscle stimulation to determine which treatment programs can help a given condition.

It is also important to use EMS as a supplement to traditional training, not as a replacement (except when you are unable to perform conventional exercise because of pain or your condition).

Summary

Loss of muscle strength is a multifaceted problem influenced by many factors. The key to recovery is regular exercise, adequate nutrition, rest, and, when necessary, modern technologies such as EMS.

Ask a professional experienced in stimulation for advice to develop the most appropriate treatment plan. For example, here is one for strengthening the thigh muscles with a muscle stimulation device.

Once you have that plan, your only job is to follow it.

Devices to help recover muscle strength

During enforced rest due to illness, muscle mass and strength decline rapidly. Even 2–3 weeks without movement can cause a significant decrease. Muscle stimulation can prevent—and even reverse—this process!

Go to the devices! →